Encroaching flames
by Zanka no Tachi 31
Summary: No longer involved in the world of the afterlife feeling bored and rather useless with all the tools he acquired from the Winter War Ichigo gets an offer from Urahara that he can't really resist. Getting back his powers? Weapons? Hunting monsters for a career rather than free labour? Yeah that sounds about right to him. I always make my stuff rated M because it gives future leeway
1. Chapter 1

**POSTED: 23/8/14**

**I know, I know. Some of you who read my stories are probably going, "Are you going to continue the others?" And the answer is, "Maaayyyyybe", I'm a bit iffy about some of my stories and have lost complete interest in a few of them (Actually had no idea what I was doing. Was making it up on the go for the most part.). There are a few almost definite continuations that will start up when school holidays begin (Because I actually did know what was happening), however with the workload I can't promise anything and this may be another attempted failure for a long time to come.**

**With updating, it will come randomly and periodically, preferably once every week or two if I can handle it.**

**Anyway, I heard about this internet "Anime" that 'Rooster Teeth' decided to throw together, and thought it was rather impressive for a small yet well known group like theirs. The animation was no where near completely satisfactory as they had things going through solid objects and what not. Yet I found it interesting for the most part and read up a few Bleach X RWBY crossovers that are currently on ff. They were ok for the most part. Terrible grammar if anyone else has ever seen it, apart from "The Shinigami Huntsman" and "Legend of the Viazards" which seemed a little more legit than the others even without a more descriptive scene and sticking to more of a verbal interaction based story (for the former, the latter had a fair bit more description to picture the scenes.). So in the end I thought why not? I ended up beginning my own crossover of the two and here's the beginning. I intend to keep the chapter length at about 5k but it may go a bit under or if I'm lucky, over.**

**Let me know what you think in a review or PM**

**Oh yeah, I can't really think of a story name at the moment because of splitting headache, stupid panadol doesn't work (Everyone near me seems to be passing something around at the moment and are either bed ridden or intent on making another person ill) so if anyones willing to throw a few ideas my way it's appreciated.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The beginning of the end**

* * *

Throwing his bag onto the desk chair and slumping down onto the bed before him Ichigo groaned in annoyance. The careers expo he'd been to for the school trip that day hadn't been all that eye catching. Only one thing really had, becoming a hunter and going to a place such as Beacon academy which wasn't too far away from home considering the limited number of academies such as that one. Too bad he didn't have any 'Aura' anymore as the representatives of beacon called it. Did that mean they could all see ghosts? Perhaps it was because he was used to being a soul reaper and slaying monsters was more invigorating and exciting than he'd come to realise when he had his shinigami powers.

It had been seventeen months since Ichigo had been a soul reaper and said goodbye to Rukia for the last time, at least until death that is. A questionable course of action would be just to kill his human body and get it over and done with. He'd be dead and would possibly get his shinigami powers back however unlikely.

Sitting back up Ichigo unpacked his bag and started on the crazy load of math homework that 4 unit math is. The worst part was, was that his teacher was a slave driver and shoved extra on top of the already extended part of the curriculum. It was bad for all those people such as Ryo Kuneida who hadn't been through all the experiences that Ichigo and his friends had been through. Thanks to those high speed battles that required beyond humanly possible reaction timing and thinking, time seemed to move slower to him than normal people when he focused on a particular subject or task put before him.

This enhancement that had carried over into his human body was particularly useful and had brought his grades back up from their low and surpassed his previous position as twenty-third in the school to ninth and still climbing.

Ryo Kuneida, much to her displeasure had dropped from second to fourth, overtaken by both Orihime and Chad, while the four-eyed prick still maintained his high and mighty position as number one.

Ichigo twitched in thought of the self-proclaimed 'last Quincy' almost snapping his pencil, cracks appearing along the timber shaft as he imagined himself pummeling the four-eyed bastards face.

Despite retaining the friendly relationship with the Quincy, Ichigo hadn't come to the point where he enjoyed the Quincy's company completely for extended periods of time despite the fact that they were quiet good at working together when they needed to and were strangely quite pleasant with each other despite the occasional name calling that happened.

That was a while ago though, a few months maybe. Over the course of time they had grown distant due to Ichigo's inability to see ghosts anymore. He was no longer a part of their world.

"Ichi-nii!" Karin's voice called out from across the house. "That perverted shopkeeper is here to see you."

Ichigo, wearing a slightly confused expression went downstairs ducking under his fathers flying kick and yanking on the back of his fathers shirt as he sailed over head and redirecting his face to the wall smashing the plaster and meeting the brick exterior of the house that all the Kurosaki's lived in.

Wearily holding up a hand giving his son the thumbs up, "G-g-good one son…" was all that managed to claw its way out of his throat before he slumped still, using the timber structure and several power cords that currently dangled out of the wall to hold him up.

"Nii-san!" Yuzu gasped from her place in the kitchen, "You can't do that to Tou-san all the time. He's going to end up in hospital someday because of you you know."

Rushing over to Isshin quickly, Yuzu pulled him out of the wall allowing him to unceremoniously to flop onto the ground in a mess of plaster. "At least one of my children care. Dear Masaki-chan! What did I ever do to deserve this!" Isshin began sobbing, managing to pull himself over to the poster of Masaki that hung on the wall.

"Pff, what ever." Ichigo replied without care to Isshin as he strode past and made his way to the front door where Keisuke was casually waiting in his traditional green attire, his fan whipped out as soon as Ichigo looked at his face, failing to hide the massive grin behind it as he fluttered it in front of his face feigning hot weather.

"Ma, ma Kurosaki-san," Keisuke began, "is there any need to look so scary all the time."

Ichigo scowled harder wondering what in the world Keisuke was talking about, this was how he always looked.

"Hah," Urahara sighed, "Your not gonna get any girls if you look like that all the time I hope you realise." Urahara continued before stepping inside and walking past Ichigo.

Ichigo glared at the mans back and closed the door, following the man into the main room of the house where Urahara grabbed an apple out of the fruit bowl before biting into it and happily devouring it. "If that's all you came here for, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

_"__First he invites himself in and then begins to eat as though he owns the place."_ Ichigo growled, as those thoughts flew by in his head.

"Terribly sorry for the intrusion Kurosaki-san *munch* however *munch* I locked myself out of the store and the only spare keys are with Tessai and the kids who happen to have just left for a short weekend trip to gather more supplies for the shop, so I'll be crashing here for a bit." Urahara stated biting into the apple he held again muttering something about the apple being quiet juicy and delicious.

"Grr." Ichigo growled angrily before grabbing the hem of Urahara's collar and dragging him out of the house before dumping him on his arse in the middle of the road. "You're a mad scientist, find a way back into your place then!"

"But Kurosaki-san," Urahara admonished slightly exasperated, "I have a job opportunity for you."

By this point Ichigo was already halfway back to the house and simply yelled back. "I'm not working in a candy store."

Having picked himself up off of the ground Urahara tossed the apple core he was holding into a nearby open bin, and by nearby he meant thirty meters down the street. "Well I'm flattered that you thought that I was giving you a job at my store but that's a big no, you'd wreck all the fun!" Urahara pouted in a very…awkward and disturbing manner.

"So no, it's not a job at my store, rather," the sound of Urahara's clothes rustling as he pulled out some paper forms with various boxes that needed to be signed, one of them mentioning '…will not be responsible for your death in any way or manner.' "I managed to procure some papers for Beacon academy for you. That is if you want to become a hunter of the Grimm. Neh, kurosaki-san." Urahara mouthed slowly while waving the papers temptingly in front of Ichigo's face, having caught up to him just to do that.

Taking a long hard look at the papers before him Ichigo shifted his stare between Urahara and the papers a few times before moving to snatch the papers out of Urahara's hands.

"Ah ah ahh, Kurosaki-san. Have you forgotten, you lost your reiryouku, so how do you think you're going to compete against this." Urahara reminded Ichigo.

_"__Right. No powers."_ Ichigo remembered.

"You must really want this if you managed to forget about your reiryouku problem for a moment." Urahara commented. "Now lets go back inside we need to discuss things over this since enrollment happens next year in three months. That leaves you with about a month and a half to train and get back into shape because school still goes for a bit longer this year and you need to study for your exams. You've already done your practice ones if I remember correctly."

"Yeah." Ichigo mouthed almost in disbelief. Following after the green clad man.

Snapping out of his daze for a moment Ichigo questioned a pressing issue at that moment. "Wait what about my reiryouku, or 'Aura' as the hunters and huntresses call it."

"All in due time Kurosaki-san." Urahara waved his fan over hiss shoulder before dumping all the slips of paper he held onto the table in the centre of the room. "Now sit."

* * *

_Next day: During school Lunch break : Friday_

"Huh," a very astounded Asano Keigo let out showing his sheer stup- uhh smartness, that's right Asano Keigo is very smart. _"So get that mouth shut before Tatsuki punches you again."_ Keigo said to himself.

"You've decided to go to Beacon academy!" Tatsuki yelled, "What the hell! I get some of the top places in martial arts competitions, and even then most of these peoples abilities are beyond mine."

That was a fair point. Tatsuki was labeled as the second strongest woman in Japan, at least in the martial arts division of society anyway. So what was Ichigo thinking?

Ichigo sighed to himself and looked away from the depreciative gazes being given his way from the smaller group of friends he hung around now, having split off from the super powered portion of their friends. Scratching the back of his head nervously as Tatsuki glared? No, maybe that wasn't quiet the right term, perhaps murdering him within her mind, or at least fantasizing about it anyway.

"Look, I know I don't have any 'Aura' at the moment." Ichigo emphasized his understanding of the situation, "However, Tatsuki, do you really think that with my level of experience I couldn't at least hold my own in a fight against a few grimm at the moment?" Ichigo questioned rhetorically causing Tatsuki's gaze to soften somewhat.

Thanking whatever higher being there was that Tatsuki wasn't going to try beat him up Ichigo mentally sighed, closing his eyes for a second before he felt something whiz past his ear.

"What the hell was that for?" Ichigo roared opening his eyes to see Tatsuki with her fist hovering over his shoulder, where his head had been a mere moment before.

Tatsuki shrugged and just said, "I was testing something."

Mizuro, having finally finished his phone call decided that now happened to be the appropriate time to join in the conversation. "Sorry, what were we talking about again?" Mizuro casually talked to his friends.

"My best friend…" A tear rolled down Keigo's cheek, "is leaving me behind, wha hahahaaaa. Do something about it Mizuro! Ichigo is going to Beacon academy to learn how to slay monsters…without us!"

Surprise and shock quickly made it's way to Mizuro's face and said something that made Keigo tear up even more. "With the butterfly man incident a while ago I can see how it'd fit Ichigo to go to Beacon academy." Mizuro said looking at Keigo before turning to Ichigo, "He must find the slow life we live at the moment quiet boring compared to what he use to do. Good luck."

Keigo teared up, his bottom lip pulling up his face as he sniffled, snot and tears streaming down his face in sadness. "Ichigooooo, Whyyyyy?" Keigo grabbed Ichigo by the shirt.

Ignoring Keigo and pushing him off of himself and onto his backside Ichigo began eating his lunch again.

Looking up from his phone once more Mizuro voiced his thoughts once again. "Oh yeah, in that case, since you're going to Beacon academy doesn't that mean you should've gone to a combat based school instead and you don't really have to finish your year here?"

"Well, yeah, it does." Ichigo replied.

"W-w-w-what!" Keigo screamed. "Not only do you get to go to an awesome school for slaying monsters, you get to skip the final school exams."

Ichigo just growled and buried his need to remove Keigo's diaphragm deep within his soul, if only to not be convicted of murder straight before going to Beacon, it'd probably look bad on his record. "I'm still finishing school you moron, what if I didn't make it in?"

"That's impossible!" Keigo cried, "Gah!" Keigo let some spit come out of his mouth as soon as he was kicked in the nether regions by tatsuki herself.

"Geez, shut up already you moron!" Tatsuki roared before sighing and turning to face Ichigo. "But he was kind of right…"

_"__Then why did you do that?!"_

"…It'd be almost impossible for you not to get in once you train back up and get at least some traces of your power back into your system." Tatsuki said in encouragement. "And when you're there…" Tatsuki leaned closer before grabbing Ichigo's collar, "…I better not hear from your Dad that you've gotten some girl pregnant and made him a grandparent."

Grabbing Tatsuki's hands and pulling them off of his shirt Ichigo looked a little shocked that Tatsuki would even think of such a thing. "What the hell, I thought only my Dad could think of something stupid like that."

Tatsuki crossed her arms and shrugged closing her eyes for a moment, "Knowing your Dad he'll probably send you with your bag full of condoms or something." Tatsuki reasoned. "And besides you have to at least know by now how a great portion of the female populace at this school reacted when Keigo sold those photos he took of you in the change rooms after sport one day."

Ichigo blinked and turned to the crumpled crying mess that was Keigo Asano on the ground of the school rooftop. "That was him?" Ichigo half questioned, half stated. While he was completely aware of the incident that occurred, he never found out the culprit to bring justice upon them.

"Yep, sold the photo's for about two thousand yen each. Something about saving money to move out so he doesn't have to live with his sister anymore." Tatsuki plainly stated raising her hand in the air and swirling it about a bit as though it weren't all that bad. Too bad for him she was in possession of some of these photos and wasn't giving them up anytime soon. Just thinking about them caused her cheeks to become dusted a light pink, "Aren't you going to, I dunno, beat him up or something?"

Ichigo cupped his chin and adopted a thinking pose. "No, no, if I did that he might die or fall in a coma, and that'd be no good," Ichigo began thinking to himself, "but then again," Ichigo adopted a smile that could only be called cruel, "he is particularly durable, so he might not die."

"Uh," Tatsuki got out, slightly concerned for her friend, despite his antics and particular 'habits', at what Ichigo was thinking of doing, "Ichigo."

* * *

TIME SKIP EXAMS OVER

Strolling out of school for the last time with his friends after the graduation ceremony, to which Uryuu did not attend because of an 'illness', despite it being a farewell for most of the students as they left the town to go to the various different universities the kingdoms had to offer.

Within the crowd of students there was the four students who had hung out the most, Mizuro, Keigo, Tatsuki, and Ichigo.

"Well, I guess this is it guys. I'll be seeing you around some time then." Ichigo said calmly.

"Don't say that berry boy." Tatsuki grinned, proudly using her nickname for him just to rile him up on the last day of school. "It sounds like you won't be seeing any of us some time soon."

"Well, yeah." Ichigo said slightly annoyed at the nickname. "I won't be."

Frowning Tatsuki groaned when she got no reaction from her best friend. "Ah, I hate it how you've become mostly all calm and collected now. It's really annoying that you don't react like you use to. Then I'd have a reason to beat you up again."

Ichigo just chuckled slightly and turned around when he heard a familiar voice call out.

"Kurosaki-kun, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime waved at them as she walked closer.

"Hime-chan!" Chizuru called out running up behind Orihime ready to glomp her from behind, only to meet the steely foot of Tatsuki. Tatsuki then proceeded to kick Chizuru into the ground and stomp on her a few times leaving a twitching Chizuru in a smoking crater in the ground, blood caking her bruised face.

"H-im-e-chan." Chizuru managed to grind out between her heaving breaths.

Keigo shuddered at the display, glad that he hadn't been on the receiving end. _"What monstrous strength."_ Keigo gulped, keeping his professionalism for the small last time meet up before everyone went on his or her way.

"I thought I told you to stop that! You crazy bitch!" Tatsuki shouted at the still incapacitated and very much alive Chizuru.

_"__Hehe. Hime-chan. You're mine now that Kurosaki is leaving."_ Chizuru thought as she looked up into the concerned face of Orihime, before looking down a bit further, her lips twitching upwards a little bit. _"White."_

"Tatsuki-chan," Orihime whined and pouted at her best friend, causing Tatsuki to grimace, "I don't think that that was necessary."

"What ever." Tatsuki brushed it off, looking to the side to avoid Orihime's gaze. After a moment Tatsuki turned back. "So Orihime, what are you going to do now?"

This question turned the few heads that knew Orihime, ready for her strange yet interesting ideas. "Well," Orhimie began putting her hands behind her back thinking so hard you could literally see the cogs in her head turning. "I was thinking of becoming a surgeon, to help heal people!"

Tatsuki blanched and instantly turned white imagining waking up a cyborg after having been operated on by a mad Orihime. What would happen to all those poor and innocent people that got in the way of Orihime's imagination? So many terrible things would happen. Tatsuki cupped her face in her hands, her eyes peeking through her fingers, showing utter and absolute horror as she stared at the ground and prayed for Orhime's possible future test subjects.

"Tatsuki-chan?" Orihime innocently turned her head sideways, wondering what was wrong with Tatsuki to make her react in such a way.

Despite her nearly top grades in the school, Orihime just didn't understand some things. It kind of made some people wonder whether or not she'd received 'the talk' yet. Oh the horror.

"NO!" was the collective thought that came from all of the people around Orihime, absolute horror shown on their stricken faces.

"Eh?" Orihime said confusedly. "Why not?"

* * *

Ichigo sighed as he walked down the road tossing a blade up and down in one hand, glinting in the afternoon sunlight. The blade itself was only the length from the base of his palm to his fingertips with the words 'Endless' inscribed along one side in kanji and the other having 'night'. The hilt is a matt black rectangular handle along with its sheath much like the grip on his old shikai blade except without the excessive bandages, which Ichigo kept with him at all times strapped to his back, the handle pointing to his left and down so he could reach up behind him with his left hand and pull the blade out of it's sheath on short notice.

The blade itself was a gift from the Arrancars of Heuco Mundo strangely enough, mainly from their new and recovered leader Tia Harribel for thanks in slaying Aizen because of his betrayal to them.

The only reason Ichigo could see or even touch it was because the original blade that they had given to him was within the physical one he held now, it's 'soul' or essence having been melded into the titanium alloy blade before him. Spiritually enhanced tempered steel apparently didn't cut it and they decided to go for something stronger and conducted reiryouku more easily. Titanium happened to do the job and was stronger and lighter than any other design that used spiritual steel.

Ichigo could really tell that it was something that everyone had chipped in on. Not just the Arrancars, if the cards that he received from known and unknown shinigami thanking him for sparing their lives were anything to go by.

Another memory to go by was the substitute badge that he still retained although it had been converted or reverted, Ichigo wasn't really sure, back to a normal piece of whatever the thing was made of, timber seemed most likely, but given the things resilience it must still have some spiritual matter attached to it.

Ichigo toyed with it every now and then, carrying it on his own person at all times, a small piece of rope attaching it to one of the loops around the waist of his pants, typically in the right side.

Before long Ichigo appeared before the Urahara shoten and walked inside. To his surprise he saw Urahara actually serving a customer, a faunus by the looks of things, not that it mattered all that much to him. Just faunus tended to avoid some places and he hadn't seen many around recently besides the passerby or two.

"Awesome, thanks shop keep, no one else really has much of this stuff so it's hard to come by." The blond haired Faunus thanked Urahara.

Now that was a rare sight. Someone actually thanked the guy. The faunus himself had blond spiky hair, a monkey tail by the looks of things, wore an open, collared white shirt with the collar turned up and denim shorts with a silver chain going from his right front pocket to his back right pocket. Red guards were on his forearms with a thin black fabric beneath it, probably to stop irritation caused by the friction of the guards when he moves.

"No problem, however if I catch you trying to steal from my shop again, I might have to cut you up a bit." Urahara threatened in 'common' lowering his voice while still holding the ever-perfect grin. The blond faunus backed up a bit and chuckling guiltily while holding up his hands in surrender. His gaze with the blonde haired faunus was broken when he noticed Ichigo approaching. "Hey Ichigo." Urahara called casually in, waving to him prompting him to return the wave on his approach.

"Hey." Ichigo replied, "I didn't think your store was worthy enough to be stolen from," Ichigo said looking at Urahara before his eyes drifted towards the other guy, "apparently it is though." Ichigo's eyes narrowed a little bit before turning back to Urahara. "Anyway," Ichigo switched back to Japanese confusing the guy standing next to him at the sudden language barrier, "I'm here to start up my training."

"Of course." Urahara replied going back to finishing his transaction with the Faunus, "Just a moment."

Indeed a moment later the faunus had left the store leaving just Ichigo and Urahara present in front of the cashier. "Jinta!" Urahara called out to some place within the shop.

"What?!" a loud cry came back, clearly annoyed at the event for some reason.

"I need you to look after the shop until Tessai gets back with dinner." Urahara called back while walking to the hatch to the training grounds below the shop, Ichigo close behind.

"Ugh." Jinta groaned, "Fine." He mumbled clearly annoyed at the turn of events as he semi walked/dragged himself out of the back rooms with a school textbook.

* * *

Down below the shop, Ichigo couldn't help but open his mouth in astonishment. What the hell had Urahara done to the place? Seriously.

"Ma, Ichigo," Urahara began noting Ichigo's look questioning the methods which Urahara used to modify the underground area, "I only added in a swimming pool." Urahara motioned to the fifty metre lap pool off to the side with Perspex walls surrounding it to see inside to prevent rocks from flying in and making the water dirty. "Complete with a heating a cleaning pump system. Quiet relaxing to swim in if I do say so myself."

Ichigo turned on the spot merely questioning the reason why with just his face.

"Well Kurosaki-san, we have to train you up in just a month and a half and swimming laps is going to be a part of your routine." Urhara answered plainly. "With all the swimming it'll help increase your lung capacity, benefitting you in almost all areas of combat once your training is finished."

"Right…" Ichigo looked back at the pool and towards the training grounds that remained for the larger part, unchanged except a few new gouges and crevices in the rocky landscape from what he could only presume the others had come here to train for. "So how are we going about starting this again?"

Urahara giggled in a very unprofessional like manner. "Using my extensive knowledge and keen intellect we will give you the most vigorous training the human body is capable of withstanding." Urahara held the hand out above him that wasn't holding his fan, allowing his 'sword cane' to rest against his side with a light shining in the background probably trying to emphasize his brilliance.

Raising one of his eyebrows in questionable doubt Ichigo just sighed and held a hand to his face as he shook his head. "Just…when do we get started?"

Clearly disappointed in the turn of events, Urahara looked as though he was about to complain. Despite that however he broke into his professional stance and began talking seriously for once.

"Due to certain circumstances you aren't currently able to use your powers or any form of them for that matter." Urahara began, "Now because of that it will be our first thing on the list of things to do."

"And we're doing that how?" Ichigo broke into the speech that Urahara was giving to the patient yet short fused Ichigo.

"Shush," Urahara held a finger over his lips in amusement watching Ichigo's face twitch slightly despite the calm demeanor he was still giving off. "Now as I was saying before. It is in our best interest to give you your 'Aura'," Urahara air quoted, still not coming to agreement with the term that all the other hunters and huntresses gave the name. "and to do that we are going to put you through some training that possibly you and only a few select other people would be capable of, the training to get a Fullbring that is."

Now that was something, Ichigo looked amused at Urahara's statement wondering what this Fullbring was.

"Now I must warn you that once you have gained your Fullbring and completed it I am going to ask you not to use it unless you are in dire circumstances since this power is quiet rare to possess and very few humans or faunus actually know about it, and even then it tends to be a heavily guarded secret by sympathisers for this power is not natural." Urahara clasped his hands together in front of himself snapping the fan shut holding it between his palms.

It kind of made sense, a power that is not meant to be or is extremely rare meant that that person would likely be studied in some circumstances. Especially people like Orihime who had the power of rejection. Ichigo himself could attain something powerful, he already had once, although probably not nearly as grandiose as rejection of anomalies or matter.

Nodding his head in acknowledgement of this fact Ichigo motioned for Urahara to continue.

"Good, now we can begin." Urahara clapped his hands once more before moving to draw his blade from the cane at his side.

Freaking out almost as soon as Urahara went for his blade Ichigo took off in the opposite direction sprinting as hard as he could to stay as far away as possible from the blade that Urahara wielded.

Urahara watched in amusement as Ichigo sprinted off into the distance disappearing behind some boulders before pouting. "Ichigo-san didn't wait for me to explain the rules of the game…" Urahara stared straight ahead for a moment trying to sense out for Ichigo and locate his position, "…Oh, right." Urahara started talking to himself. Not all that odd if you think about it. "I forgot to tell Ichigo how to activate his Fullbring."

Pulling a thick instruction booklet out of a pocket from within his coat labeled 'Fullbring for dummies'. Urahara sat down and began reading, completely oblivious to the fact that Ichigo was still running.

* * *

A few minutes later we see Ichigo…still running.

Looking over his shoulder once or twice every now and then Ichigo made sure to check the crazy shopkeeper wasn't anywhere near him. He cursed not having powers and the ability to sense the bastard's reiryouku anymore.

His eyes widening a little Ichigo came to the sudden realisation that despite the fact that he couldn't sense Urahara's reiryouku, he couldn't sense his presence either, which could really only mean one thing. He had been baited and he had fallen for it. That or the moron had forgotten something important and had run off only to come back unable to find him due to his lack of reiryouku. The fact that Ichigo hid his physical presence as a nearly instinctual ability now didn't help either.

Giving up for the moment Ichigo was about to begin heading back when he noticed a green bucket hat peeking over the horizon of one of the many boulders littering the terrain.

"Ichigo!" Urahara's voice made it to him clearly enough. "Come out, come out, where ever you are." He called out in a voice filled with child like glee, as though he'd just opened a new present. "We have so many 'experiments'," Urahara put particular emphasis on the word 'experiments', "to do while you're here for the time between now and Beacon." He flapped around the instruction booklet in the air that he had been reading just a few moments ago, having been compiled by a few humans he had come across with the power of fullbring.

And that was all it caused for Ichigo to begin hyperventilating and break out in a cold sweat as he remembered the oh-so-not-a-great-idea-to-be-friends-with Mayuri Kurotsuchi. His experiments were sick.

* * *

**Eh, first chapter wasn't that great but it'll get better...hopefully.**


	2. Chapter 2

**POSTED: 21/9/14**

* * *

**Chapter 2: The training begins**

* * *

Ichigo ran for his life.

Despite having faced greater odds in the world he thought that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a great idea to waste any more blood in this case.

Urahara was cackling like a madman, having a ball as Ichigo once again flung a spinning cross of black energy at him, only to shatter like glass as soon as his Zanpakuto struck it. To him this turn of events was possibly one of the best, if not the best events that had ever occurred, the second being fooling Hiyori into thinking that it was Shinji that took her sandals and destroyed them because he was sick of being slapped in the face with them.

Hiyori returned the next day wearing bricks for sandals and clobbered him in the face. It was hilarious not to be the one injured by Hiyori. Her normal sandal slaps often sent a person through a wall or two, to say a brick wouldn't do much more was a bit of an understatement. It was safe to say that Shinji would have a grudge with him for the foreseeable future.

"Gah!" Ichigo spat out as Urahara used a shunpo to get in front of him and strike his chest with the cane in his left hand, the sword following shortly afterwards, skimming the bridge of Ichigo's nose splitting the skin cleanly and allowing a dribble of blood to flow down his left cheek.

"Come on Ichigo," Urahara reprimanded, changing demeanor rapidly, "you've gotta move faster than that. The human body is much frailer than that of a Shinigami's after all."

Striking out again, Ichigo barely managed to avoid the cane aiming for his forehead much like it did the first time he used the flaming blue skull on the base to knock his soul out of his body. Only this time there was no flaming blue skull, just a spiritually enforced stick that housed a Zanpakuto most of the time. It need not be said that it would be painful if it connected.

Leaning back Ichigo let out another spinning disk of energy at the last second, only giving it enough time to charge up to the point where it had four bars, barely scuffing Urahara's clothing at all when it collided.

Urahara grinned at the prospect of Ichigo finishing his main training a week ahead of schedule. It had already been a week since they began, giving enough time for Ichigo's soul to strengthen up to withstand the initial strain of using a fullbring. Substituting that time with physical training such as conditioning his body and speeding up even further from his barely human reflexes and speed. The conditioning was mainly comprised of swimming in the newly constructed pool and running though.

So now, at a time like this, Ichigo reacted as soon as he saw the muscles in Urahara's arm twitch signaling his preparation to strike no matter how short it was. Bringing his arm up quickly Ichigo grunted when the Zanpakuto collided with the black cross of six bars and propelled him a good twenty metres away, surely breaking something when he landed once more.

Always give it to Urahara to use beyond human strength in a gigai to try and kill you.

Standing up as fast as he could Ichigo raised his black guard again ready for another strike as the dust cloud that was kicked up from his impact slowly drifted downwards. The adrenaline in his blood stream abated the pain from the collision temporarily as blood flowed from a few new fresh wounds to his arms and head, attempting to protect his head with his forearms.

"Haa." Ichigo breathed out, struggling to keep up with the monstrous power of the captain class shinigami before him. His legs were clearly starting to give out as his knees almost buckled under the sudden pressure that was being applied through the sudden release in reiatsu from Urahara, taking the level up again.

Urahara frowned somewhat when he looked at Ichigo. He could feel it and he knew Ichigo could as well, his fullbring was on its course to evolve into a more complete form or it was about to go berserk. Either way, there was only one way to find out. It was reaching a peak and so Urahara deciding to experiment like the scientist he was, upped the amount of reiatsu he was releasing. Unsurprisingly enough, Ichigo's own power responded to the challenge, rising even closer to the peak where it would spill over the edge. The only further evidence he could see of such a thing happening was the trace of small green sparks coming out from the soles of Ichigo's shoes every now and then temporarily increasing his speed.

Realising that Urahara hadn't struck right away Ichigo reared back his shaking right hand and went to charge up the only attack he knew how to do so far. That was when all hell broke loose.

The black energy around the shinigami badge erupted from within and without control, trying to seemingly devour it's wielder like it had a mind of it's own, slowly creeping up Ichigo's arm until he strongly willed it to stop advancing. To his misfortune however he could not make it retreat back down, leaving it just below his shoulder as the energy kicked upwards like flames.

"Keisuke!" Ichigo shouted his mentors first name, a thing he only did in seemingly dire circumstances. "What the hell is happening?" Ichigo grunted heavily as soon as he asked his question, attempting to keep the Fullbring at bay.

"Hm…I'd say that your Fullbring has gone berserk." Urahara scratched his chin in contemplation, stabbing Benehime into the ground beside him. After a moment Urahara stopped contemplating and came up with his not so brilliant answer to the problem at hand. "I dunno what it means." Urahara shrugged before pulling Benehime out of the ground. "We'll just continue and find out."

Ichigo would have allowed his mouth to hit the floor if he hadn't been concentrating on keeping his Fullbring at bay from a possible attempt at devouring his soul. It was based off the power of a hollow after all.

"What the fuck does that mean?!" Ichigo growled his eyes darkening as he looked at Urahara. Was he really here for this mans amusement…No, not quiet, the man wouldn't do that to him, he said that they all owed him after the defeat of Aizen anyway, so Urahara wouldn't be willing to go back on something like that.

"It means Ichigo-san," Urahara punctuated clearly, "that your Fullbring is about to reach the next level so lets continue."

So Urahara struck again, amazed in the new development of the Fullbring. He hadn't been expecting something like this, and the more he thought about it the more the Fullbring's presence made sense. Sado-san himself had hollow based powers that worked for him. While it certainly never went berserk in his time of having the powers the similarities were there nonetheless.

Not quiet ready for Urahara to strike again Ichigo was pleasantly surprised when the darkness coating his arm acted like an extension of his limb and was able to fend off Urahara's strikes rather well. Continuing for a while longer like this wouldn't be all that difficult if he stayed within the boundaries provided to him by the encroaching flames of darkness.

Some time later, and one half asleep Ichigo later, the Fullbring had stabilised into a styalised version of the traditional Shinigami shihakusho. Although still far from complete Urahara noted that they had made a fair bit of progress and that possibly perhaps, the training would be over by the end of the week and Ichigo would be able to focus his time and studies on more hunter like weapons besides a Fullbring.

* * *

Wearing a face that could be said to be one of a zombies, without expression that is and completely uncaring for his surroundings, Ichigo arrived home once again from his hellish training with Urahara.

Stumbling along the pathway up to his house, bruises present on his face and exposed arms making it look like he had been seriously mugged and beaten relentlessly even if nothing was currently broken. Hand reaching out for the door knob a few times before finding the strength in his hand to grip it Ichigo swung open the door, walked inside, and slammed it closed behind him, before trudging up the stairs to his room, forgetting to take his shoes off at the front door.

Finally having made it to his room Ichigo fell face first onto his bed before almost instantly falling asleep. Yeah, keeping up with captain class fighters as he was now was impossible.

Unknown to Ichigo and anyone else though, his badge sparked in his sleep, seeping out some black and red energy which was then pulled back into the badge as though it had just been probing the surrounding environment all according to Ichigo's subconscious wish that his father wouldn't spring into his room anytime soon and attack him. If he did the newly regained sense of spiritual energy would alert him to it.

* * *

SOME WEEKS LATER

"Wha?" Ichigo said, half asleep at the counter of the shop.

Urahara refrained from hitting Ichigo over the head, even in their now established food chain of Urahara being the one at the top, Ichigo still tended to lash out every now and then when woken too soon. It tended to leave a mess even if he was restrained rather quickly. He couldn't blame the guy for being so sleepy. After all, he was the one that decided to go on their adventurous trip at three in the morning.

Using his usual stupid grin Urahara repeated what he had just told Ichigo twice and now for the third time in a row. "Your fullbring training is complete, you have gotten the feel back for a sword like Tensa Zangetsu, however you have yet to have any experience with real grim despite the fact that they attack like hollows do with the exception of going for powerful souls rather than everyone."

"Wait, I thought grim were capable of hunting in packs?" Ichigo suddenly realised the wording of his explanation.

"They are." Urahara said with a little confusion as to what Ichigo was trying to get at, "Hollows can do that too. Don't you remember that time Ishida-san used the hollow bait to bring all the hollows here from Heuco Mundo?"

"Oh…yeah." Ichigo rubbed his face with the palms of both hands trying to wake himself up a little. "…So what were we doing again?"

Sighing, Urahara began to think that he should have given Ichigo another hour or two of sleep.

* * *

Ichigo finally began to realise why in fact he was never allowed to venture over the hills that turned a portion of Karakura into a bowl like shape, it was because of the grimm. Surprisingly such things lived so close to home. They were only staying away because of the rather large number of people that roamed the streets of Karakura town, and picked off one or two here and there when they strayed too close to their territory.

It got Ichigo thinking. Since he'd never in fact been out of the town besides his trips to the soul society and Heuco Mundo, it was possibly like this for an entire car trip to one of the other cities, surrounded by forest and reinforced concrete walls that you either had to jump, in the case of Ichigo and Urahara or someone else of the like, or climb the fifteen metre tall wall, in order to see the other side.

The wall itself was merely a precautionary barrier and hardly did anything to stop the more persistent grimm from clearing or breaching the highway barriers that lead to other cities within Japan, using their monstrous strength to either jump or climb it. Fly in the case of a Nevermore.

The roads however were more or less disbanded when airships made developments and replaced the most common form of transport to other cities. Cars were only really used to transport things within cities now days.

Standing atop the five-foot wide concrete barrier Ichigo stood next to Urahara and drank in the view of the lush green forest before him. It was almost hard to believe that in those beautiful forests that the creatures of the Grimm dwelled. Taking in a deep breath Ichigo took note of how refreshing the smell of the forest was and almost cursed for not have coming here earlier.

Jumping down Ichigo landed in a crouch besides Urahara on the soft earth and began walking forwards, not taking any particular attention as to what direction he was going in. For now he'd just look for some Grimm to kill, hopefully to build up his experience in combatting the creatures even though Urahara said he didn't have to worry about such a thing because of his previous hollow hunting and actions in the winter war.

Some time later Ichigo had his first encounter, or rather face-to-face encounter with a Grimm. He had seen them before on the TV when damage reports were given about small Grimm invasions, but he was hardly worried due to the record lows that Japan in face had when coming to Grimm encounters. It probably explained why security around the walls was so lax.

Drawing the black blade from the sheath on his back, Ichigo pumped a small amount of reiryouku into his blade causing it to glow a silvery blue. Taking up a stance Ichigo waited for the Grimm to charge.

* * *

_FLASH BACK_

_Urahara held the sword forward with two hands offering it to Ichigo._

_Ichigo gingerly reached forward in almost complete awe of the replica. It would never be the same but he couldn't help but notice how well the blade sat in his hands, single or double grip. Reaching behind him Ichigo pulled out the silver blade that he had received as a gift from the arrancar. Holding the two blades now Ichigo realised that the two blades didn't fit together as well as his fullbring did with it and re-sheathed the smaller blade._

_Looking back up to Urahara, Ichigo simply said, "Thank you."_

_"__Aw, Ichigo, look at that," Urahara exclaimed in an all to girly manner, "you made me blush."_

_Ichigo replied by swiftly punching the man in the face._

_FLASH BACK END_

* * *

Growling lowly at Ichigo's intrusion into the Grimm's territory, the Ursa reared back slightly before charging ahead, intent on tearing Ichigo's head off if the open maw of the beast was anything to go by when it passed overhead. Ichigo bent backwards as the beast jumped overhead and attempted to rip his black blade through the beast, when it only shredded the flesh part way in and stopped. Slightly confused by the turn of events Ichigo wrenched the blade out of the Ursa, watching it continue to sail overhead.

"Ichigo-chan!" Urahara called out affectionately waving his closed fan at the orange-headed teen from a tree branch nearby. "The hide and muscular fibres as well as the bones in a Grimm are a lot more resistant and durable than your average animal, human, or tree for that matter."

Ichigo's brow twitched in annoyance at the shopkeepers off handed attitude towards the fight between him and the Grimm. But seriously! Stronger than a tree? Bah, the shopkeeper had to be joking.

However rather than not taking the crazed scientists word for it Ichigo charged, with the same level of Aura pulsing through his blade, and used twice the strength he did before, to cut straight through the right hind leg of the creature only to be met with the same level of resistance as before, the initial blow he dealt only a moment prior.

The Ursa roared in pain as its rear leg hung on by a few threads of flesh, completely falling off a few seconds later, its head twisting on its massive shoulders to bare it's enormous teeth at Ichigo. Recovering quickly enough the Ursa turned around rapidly, surprising Ichigo somewhat that it could perform such a feat even with one leg missing.

Seemingly using the moment of surprise to it's advantage, the Ursa roared again lunging at Ichigo faster than before, successfully gaining upon Ichigo until the last moment as he quickly brought up the black blade, seemingly drinking the sunlight in its movement forming a blur and trail of darkness.

Going for Ichigo's head, the Ursa had opened its mouth wide enough to possibly swallow the entire upper portion of Ichigo's body whole. It was stopped in its advancement though as Ichigo wedged the black blade he held across the back of the Ursa's jaw, holding it in place as it struggled against Ichigo's semi-human strength, jaw crunching down on the blade repeatedly, as it moved its head almost uselessly trying to get a better angle on Ichigo.

One hand on the hilt of the blade, the other extended around the other side of the Ursa's head supporting the forefront of the blade to keep the Ursa at bay. Clenching his jaw, Ichigo's muscles trembled under the pressure of having nearly the entire weight of the Ursa pressing down upon him. The effect of such a thing happening caused Ichigo's heels to dig into the ground and the ground to crack slightly under the pressure from having a focus point for all that was the Ursa.

Normally he would have just spiritually reinforced his body to handle the strain, however Urahara emphasized that despite most hunters and hunters in training having greater 'Aura' capacities than the average person, they used brute strength and dust enhancements and skill with their preferred weapon to get themselves by most of the time to prevent quick exhaustion of these banks of energy, preferably avoiding direct contact where they could with a Grimm, something which Ichigo should pick up on since he was using his human body now and was nowhere near as durable as his Shinigami one. Their strength was monstrous after all and easily surpassed that of any normal person and quite a few hunters.

Pressing forward Ichigo grit his teeth together and pushed with all his might for a split moment, using the effect of knocking the Grimm's head back slightly to his advantage, retracting the blade from its maw and slashing at its throat in quick succession. Blood splattered out of the wound, squirting periodically signifying the damage of an artery and the blood loss followed by death to come.

Deciding to put the Grimm out of its misery Ichigo coated the blade in a deep azure aura and rammed it through the base of the Grimm's jaw and up through its skull, piercing the most important part of the body of any creature, soul or not, the brain.

Breathing in deeply Ichigo flexed his muscles a little, feeling the blood flow and his heightened heart rate slowly die back down from its quickened pace at the sudden activity, despite the relatively easy workout.

'Clap, clap, clap'. Urahara applauded Ichigo by rapidly clapping his hands together.

"Well done Kurosaki-san. Not many people would be able to face a Grimm head on like you did just then." Urahara complemented Ichigo's ability, "Ah, maybe except for the Boarbatusk, a small little thing that is…except for the adults." Urahara finished off beginning to ponder in thought shivering at a memory that was obviously brought up during his thoughts. A rare sight.

"Yeah, whatever hat'n'clogs," Ichigo began noting the raised eyebrow from Urahara at the use of the nickname he hadn't been called in a while. "Is there something a little stronger than that out here?" Ichigo questioned seriously.

Strangely enough Urahara complied and wracked his brain for an answer to the problem at hand. _"Well, lets see, hmm…there was that nevermore that had been spotted a week or two ago…no, no. Ichigo probably isn't ready for something like that just yet, but then again, I am here with him. Meh, what could go wrong."_

Little did Urahara know that he would soon come to regret that decision, if only to help prolong the life of his loveable hat.

* * *

It was dark, it was warm, it was sticky and smelt of dissolving flesh from a recent meal, that wasn't himself…yet. Strangely, despite the pitch-black environment he could see the fleshy walls contracting and relaxing as though a muscle.

This, definitely wasn't how he pictured the fight going.

* * *

MOMENTS EARLIER

Had Ichigo ever mentioned how hard it was to take down a nevermore single handedly…no? Well, you see, that was the thing. It looked like it might be easier, but with the beast flying all over the place it was nigh impossible to strike down.

These limitations that he'd placed upon himself to get the job that was being a hunter done was ridiculous. Sure, don't use fullbring because it doesn't exactly fit in with the standard power alignment of most people, but how the hell was he supposed to defeat this thing without using it?

Landing heavily on another tree branch Ichigo launched himself off again in another direction as the Nevermore's wings shredded through the pathway of trees, knocking several down in the process. Looking back Ichigo's eyes widened and he began to sweat a little as he thought about getting caught in an attack like that.

Soaring across to another tree Ichigo turned around in mid air, building up a large amount of blue spiritual energy around the black blade he now held in a double grip overhead. Swinging downward Ichigo let out a cry of "Getsuga Tenshou" releasing the pent up energy in an arcing mass that seemed to split the air and struck the Nevermore, exploding on impact, ruffling a few trees around it from the shockwave.

Looking at the Nevermore, Ichigo panted slightly after that last attack, smirking when he heard the Nevermore scream in pain. His smirk was quickly wiped from his face however when the smoke from the explosion cleared and it revealed only a small gash along the Nevermore's side, bleeding profusely.

Groaning in annoyance, Ichigo decided to just try and cut the things head off.

Jumping to the ground Ichigo took off sprinting towards the Nevermore, his black blade at his side, the chains clinking for every step he made. Charging up the blade once more with some of his energy Ichigo decided to pull a move from his Hollows collection of unorthodox moves and threw the straight blade much like a spear at the Nevermore's neck.

The moment the blade struck it was clear that it wouldn't make it all the way through due to the fact that the source of spiritual energy was no longer connected. Sinking into the Nevermore's neck up to the guard on the sword, it simply sat there as a mild annoyance for the Nevermore as it began using one of its wings to scratch at the bothersome thing in its neck.

Sighing Ichigo jumped up towards the blade and grabbed the hilt before trying to wrench it through the neck of the Grimm. That plan was however ruined as a fatigued Ichigo only saw the wing that was scratching at the neck to clear it of nuisances swiped at Ichigo, slamming him towards the ground.

Thankfully Ichigo's monster/father avoidance instincts kicked in at the last second, pushing some 'Aura' towards the place that was struck in a fraction of a second before impact.

_"__By now, I really starting to think that, that dumbass should've let me have breakfast. It isn't even nine yet!"_ Ichigo screamed in his head, groaning from the pain of impacting with the decidedly not so soft earthy ground.

It was completely unexpected however when something suddenly placed a massive pressure on his right ankle and pulled him up off of the ground.

Looking around Ichigo tried to identify the thing that was holding him up like this. His bleary vision at the moment didn't help much as he was suddenly thrown high into the air.

Using this moment of airtime to get some bearings Ichigo quickly rubbed his eyes before opening them back up, his focus returning. That moment was probably the biggest shock of his life as the thing that had thrown him into the air was not in fact the maniacal shopkeeper trying to keep him on his toes, like the unsuspecting strawberry had thought. Rather it was a large bird like creature, with massive black feathers and beak opening wide to receive its food…him.

"Holy shit!" Ichigo roared at the last second as the beak closed around him and he was swallowed whole.

* * *

Not too far away a sleeping Urahara jolted awake ready to applaud Ichigo for his successful kill of the massive Grimm.

Yawning, his jaw opening so wide someone could confuse him for having dislocated his jaw, Urahara stretched his arms back feeling the joints crack and release the uncomfortable feeling of sleeping in an awkward position for too long. Rubbing his eyes in a very child like manner Urahara began talking to the Ichigo that was currently no where in sight.

"Congrats…ahh," Urahara yawned again, "Kurosaki-san…?" Urahara blinked confusedly when Ichigo was nowhere in sight. Shrugging his shoulders, Urahara decided to go back to sleep, taking up a more comfortable position this time. It was rare he got time off work to relax and lie back in the refreshing warmth of sunlight after all.

* * *

Now here he was within the confines of the Grimm's stomach, sticky, smelly, more stick, warm, and squishy.

There, naturally being no air in the stomach of any creature he had to hold his breath from the moment he was…eaten, and find a way out, quickly.

His sword was still stuck in the side of the Nevermore outside so that was a no go. Reaching up behind him Ichigo felt the small blade that he still had there. Pulling it out Ichigo grumbled slightly, wondering how such a thing was going to get him out of this mess. Not caring in the slightest at the moment, he began using some of the last of his reserves to pump a load of power into the small blade before stabbing forwards into the wall of the creatures stomach.

Unprepared for the sudden movement that accompanied the motion, Ichigo grinned slightly when the stomach lurched again from the internal pain and injury.

_"__Ah, screw it."_ Ichigo thought as he reached for his substitute badge, initiating his Fullbring in the process. _"There's no way I'm getting out of here with just that little ornament that the Arrancar gave me."_

Pumping even more power into both blades now held in opposing hands, he stabbed forwards again, both blades penetrating the same spot as the other.

Unable to hold back anymore despite the lack of air, Ichigo growled as he pushed harder on both blades sinking them even further into the Nevermore's flesh. The blue glow that encompassed the two intensified dramatically as Ichigo kept pushing more power into the machete and spiritual metal.

A moment later a massive explosion rocked the inside of the Nevermore and Ichigo was blown back in the opposite direction, only one or two feet considering that he was on the inside of the Nevermore without much room to go.

A ringing sensation wracked Ichigo's head as he groaned and breathed in deeply, his head turning from side to side, eyes shut tight as he was slouched up against the walls of the stomach and took a deep breath…wait, he could breath! Opening his eyes, he tried looking out of the hole he'd managed to cut, his vision doubling up for a few moments before it finally settled.

Mouth agape Ichigo took in the sight of the massive metre wide hole that was missing from the Nevermore he had just apparently killed, ripping through a good portion of its spine by the looks of it.

Crawling out of the hole, his sword still in hand, Ichigo attempted to stand, only for his legs to give out from under him as he collapsed into a sitting position. That thing…whatever he'd just done, had taken away a hefty portion of his energy and he was teetering on empty. Maybe he could spare a few minutes rest, yeah, that sounded like a great idea.

"No!" Ichigo thought shaking his head tiredly. He needed to get out of here first.

Yeah, he'd need a good long shower after that one.


	3. Chapter 3

**POSTED: 6/10/14**

**Sorry for the slow update, but laziness and life gets the better of us sometimes. I was also waiting for the first episode of the new redone version of Fate/stay night: UBW. so I kinda think that got in the way a little.**

**Anyway here's the next chapter. The beginning of the chapter isn't quite what I'd hoped so I'll be going over it again and potentially ****putting an updated version up later, but for now here you go, chapter three! R&R**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Mishaps**

* * *

Shrinking backwards into the green Haori that sat upon his shoulders three sizes too big, Urahara clutched the striped bucket hat he normally wore all the time close to his chest in fear of its imminent death.

"Now, now Ichigo," Urahara chuckled nervously, a few drops of sweat trickled down his face showing just how much he feared for his beloved hat, "no need to get so angry, or are you forgetting just who helped you recover from your little fight with the Nevermore in the first place."

Ichigo faltered in his steps slightly as he approached Urahara. That crazed man, the insane bastard, who sent him against a Nevermore without warning of the consequences or how powerful the creature would be. The guy probably wanted him to be bird food for all he cared.

Now here he was, recovered and no longer smelling like the bowels of a Nevermore's diet and digestive acids. Holding up the black daito, Ichigo motioned in for an overhead strike to the shopkeeper, eliciting a whimper of fear from the man. "Well maybe next time you'll remember that you don't have to have the goal of trying to get your students killed." Ichigo said with an eerily calm visage.

That was true to some extent. Urahara had tried to actually kill Ichigo for his first training session as a soul reaper with him ever, while restraining himself to the appropriate power and skill level of course. Nevertheless, he still tried to kill Ichigo, and now, he felt it was time it came and bit him back in the arse. Oh the shame of having a student kill his loveable hat was almost too sad to bear living on anymore…hehe, living, he hadn't done that in a few centuries.

During the short time span of being lost in his own little wonderland of bad puns and seriously lame jokes Ichigo had swiped the hat from Urahara's grasp and jumped down the hatch to the training ground all in good favour of destroying the abomination that was at the forefront of anyone's mind that had met him before. Too bad for him, it actually made his overall appearance look a little better when he wore it.

_"__No! My loveable, adorable hat!"_ Urahara scampered to his feet and dived headfirst down the manhole that lead to his training grounds like superman would, holding two fists out in front of himself and screaming, "I'm coming to save you Mr Hat!"

Jinta, having been the only other person present in the store at that point in time, stuck his head around the corner from the front of the poorly taken care of store front and grumbled, "What a loser." Before bringing his head back around to face the empty store front that was void of customers…again.

* * *

Ichigo while down below, within the depths of the desert below the candy store of misfits, merely contemplated the ways in which he could destroy the hat that sat on the chest level boulder before him. He scratched the back of his head for seemingly the thousandth time feeling slightly guilty for being the one that would destroy the 'loveable' hat of Urahara's. Then again, the man didn't take any conscious note of whose belongings he destroyed so it didn't really matter in the end. It only proved that while Ichigo had at least some emotions beside his nearly ever-present scowl Urahara did not.

"A spectacular explosion would do." Ichigo mumbled to himself in thought. To bad he wasn't a fireworks expert like the Shiba clan over in the Soul Society. He would have to make do with just destroying the wretched thing with all of his might as an act of revenge against the insane shop keeper.

Drawing the black blade, his 'Aura' flared considerably as he swept the black blade around to the side and brought it overhead for a strike before the crazed man came to save it.

Swinging down Ichigo released the wave of energy tearing up a small trail of earth by the tail of the projectile, considerably smaller than when he had his powers. When the crescent of power struck the energy exploded upon contact, causing a shock wave to rock the ground slightly where Ichigo was. Had the hat been a moving target there would have been no doubt that it would have been able to easily avoid the strike. It appeared that with the strikes he now sent, even though they were rather powerful for any normal hunter, they were slow enough to allow an easy escape from the main strike. It was as though the blade in his hands though a perfect physical replica of Tensa Zangetsu, was nowhere near the same.

"Nooo!" Urahara's voiced cried out from behind him, his thundering footsteps coming to a halt just behind Ichigo.

Urahara collapsed to his knees a moment later and began sobbing profusely, "Why?!" Urahara turned his sad and frankly, to Ichigo, ugly face towards his student, "Why Ichigo?!"

"'Cause you're a dumbass, that's why ya idiot." Ichigo turned to leave only to have a twitching eye a moment later when he saw Urahara pull an identical hat out from within his green Haori.

"Good thing to plan ahead, don't you think Kurosaki-san?" Urahara calmly replied before he began whistling and spinning his cane around on his wrist all while leaving the underground training area at a sedate pace.

He would never cease to irritate Ichigo.

* * *

_Time to go to beacon_

Now, duffel bag over shoulder and boarding the aircraft on one of the many landing pads before him in Tokyo city, Ichigo looked back one last time…and regrettably saw the face of a certain shopkeeper. A look of annoyance adorning his face Ichigo turned back around sharply and walked onto the airship.

The airship itself was quite large and had two aisles and three columns of seats going down the middle of the airship. There were four engines attached to the wings of the airship, two near the front of the airship, placed about six rows from the front and thirty rows from the back, the second set placed twenty-nine rows from the front and six rows from the back.

Due to travelling expenses it was left to Urahara to get Ichigo to the travel centre in Tokyo to get him overseas to Beacon. Due to this fact it had left Yuzu crying over his departure…as well as his father Isshin. Karin took care of the fuss by belting Isshin over the head with her soccer ball however, solving that matter quickly enough though, diverting Yuzu's attention elsewhere while he left home.

Heading towards his designated seat on the aircraft Ichigo put his duffel bag in the overhead compartment and sat down quickly deciding to sleep for the whole flight if possible, with no one to talk to or rather have an interesting conversation and nothing but the roar of engines in his ears as he just so happened to have gotten the window seat right beside the engines of the craft at the back of the craft. Life sucked sometimes.

* * *

_Some time later in an unknown location_

Sitting in the bronze throne like chair, a man with blue eyes and white hair sat in what seemed to be a rather contented position. Resting his head on the palm of his hand and his elbow on the armrest he looked out the front of the small airship that he and his crew ran.

Today they were bringing in a rather large haul. The thought of this brought a pleased grin to the man's face. Unlike those unsuccessful relatives of his that tried to call themselves guardians of the realm, he actually made a living using his powers, given there were many people that could retaliate with a power of their own or dust powered weapons.

The 'people' are the haul that he would bring in today as well as any other items that were procured in this raid, to be sold off for a high price on the black market for some disgusting man or woman's own desires. This thought caused the man to shiver imperceptibly in an involuntary manner. To be honest, he wasn't actually proud of working with those people or what his line of work led to sometimes, bringing an almost imperceptible frown to his face. It was just the way it was and to do the necessary to keep oneself from drowning in the world they themselves lived in. The only way to do that though and keep more than just your head above the water was to be strong. He thanked his natural predisposition for this. It meant that dealing with security, should it come to it, would be rather easy given the nature of his power.

He could only hope though, he supposed. The new 'dust weave' clothing that his crew now wore, stolen directly from a 'Schnee materials transport terminal', were quite impressive even if they were only the prototypes. That would help the few that couldn't exactly use their aura proficiently yet and further enhance those among his crew that could. Constructed to be a single piece of clothing or body suit as some would say, it had dust fibres woven in concentration over major areas of movement in the body to further enhance strength and durability, only re-enforced by the plated armour that went over the top, which unfortunately negated any speed and mobility bonuses the suit would grant.

For such a great thing there had to be some kind of price he thought. So far however there hadn't been one, leading him to believe that the creators of the piece of clothing were merely being precautious. He too, he thought, should be cautious, and as such limited the use of such items to when training or in combat scenarios that did not necessarily require one.

Rising out of his throne like seat he walked around the hard working crew of his ship whom were busily tracking the movements of the airship that the 'prize' was aboard, to the front of the airship he commanded to peer out of the window at the tiny speck he now saw in the distance.

Not sure whether that was the correct airship, he didn't turn to speak but asked the question anyway to the person at the control panel behind him. "In which direction is the Airship that our treasure awaits?"

Directly behind the captain a young lass craned her neck upwards and away from the control panel that showed the airships relative position to transmission towers on the boarders of the continents and ocean buoys. Brushing the rust red hair out of her only visible eye, she seemingly glared at the man's back with her golden eye before looking down at the panel before her and checking the radar.

"Twelve O'clock, three kilometres." The girl responded in a monotonous voice as to not give away her state of emotions.

"Hmm…" The man responded in a thoughtful tone, seemingly not noticing or rather not caring for the way the girl responded to him.

Folding his arms behind his back only made the girl behind him seem to gain a murderous glint behind her eyes only to be quickly steeled when she over heard footsteps of one of the captains strongest men approaching from behind her, seemingly to talk to the captain. That notion however was proven false when she received a slap to the back of her head, or rather it would have been treated as a slap to those on the same level as the man that was now walking past her. To her it was more of a quick punch to the back of the head that would have broken her nose on the Perspex screen protector had here arm not been in the way to break the momentum.

Growling slightly the girl resumed her work of staring at the radar and keeping track of position.

"You mustn't let her speak to you like that captain. She'll just show you more disrespect every time." The man said in a tone that conveyed utmost loyalty.

At first appearance the man just seemed to be a pile of muscle and well…that's what he was really, he just happened to have a few more brain cells than average for a muscle head like himself. His pale skin was nearly white, which in all didn't go well with his dark brown hair in a bowl cut that supped just above his hears or the thin layer of sweat and dark bags under his eyes. It gave the man a rather gaunt overall appearance.

If one didn't know the man personally they'd say he was perpetually sick since he looked like this all the time, save the few wrinkles or gray hairs that had appeared over the years. It was just the way he was in all actuality.

"Perhaps it's time she learnt a lesson?" The man seemed to question his captain as he turned on his heel and walked pack over to the front of the bench that the panels rested upon and placed his right hand on the top edge in a threatening manner. It worked incredibly well on the other crewmembers given his height and large muscular structure.

It seemed that, to the girl, it wasn't limited to just them, as she swallowed some saliva in fear of this man who'd been known to be a widely known criminal before he'd been recruited by the captain, accused of rape and murder as well as theft of several artifacts which had yet to be identified, probably due to the fact that they were worthless.

Sighing to himself the captain turned around to face the two before him. "I'll decide if and when that happens some other time Jirobo." He said in a tone that seemed to be a tad darker than usual drawing a few sideways glances from other people in the cabin curious as to what was about to happen. "However," his tone lightened up back to its usual harsh and condescending manner, the tone he used whenever he was on duty as a captain to show that he was serious.

Sometimes this tone made some seem a little depressed, other times however, it pushed the lost senseless workers looking for praise to work harder to achieve some kind of praise. He obliged in some cases of course, if only to keep the crew working efficiently.

"we are near our goal, so the thought of such things will have to wait for now." The captain said as he turned back around to face the ocean. "Brian!" The captain raised his voice to get the attention of the pilot of the vessel they were all aboard.

"Y-yes sir," Brian stuttered, his head snapping to the captain so fast one would say he got whiplash in the process. He suddenly realized his mistake when he saw the glare of Jirobo facing his way, "ah, Captain!"

Pausing for some added affect to try and imply anger in his stance when he couldn't really care less the captain turned his head to Brian and narrowed his eyes, "Pick up the pace, I don't want to miss lunch."

"Yes Captain!" Brian scrambled with the controls and almost immediately the engines constant roaring loudened as more fuel was injected into the jet stream and the Airship picked up speed.

As the speck in the distance began to gain size the Captain walked back to his throne like seat and sat back down to rest his head in the palm of his hand again as his elbow supported his arm on the armrest.

* * *

Some seemingly few hours into the flight due to Ichigo's bad time management, he yawned, stretched his arms and looked out the window beside himself.

Unfortunately for him, there was still ocean for miles around and no clear land in sight. It was a strange feeling, to be out in the middle of nowhere and nothing for two hundred kilometres in any direction. Almost like Heuco Mundo in that respect, nothing but sand dunes stretching as far as the eye could see. The only major difference being that it was eternal night in Heuco Mundo and daylight now where he was.

Turning his head away from the window Ichigo only now noticed the face of a beautiful girl sitting next to him, wide awake and reading a romance novel by the looks of things. She had straight blonde hair the flowed down over her shoulders and chest stopping just above her waist, covering the grey unbuttoned cardigan and black shirt, along with the slight glint of a silver chain which Ichigo could only presume to be a necklace, the pendant if there was one, hidden from view. Her blue eyes glinted with the light produced by the overhead lights, complementing on her near flawless face, the only mark marring it being along the upper left jawline.

Now Ichigo hadn't paid much attention when it came to the four kingdoms in class, all he really knew that there were four, each one ruled over by the royal families as well as the selected number of noble families that held some form of power over the military. Over all Ichigo would have said that she looked much alike the princess of Vale, the kingdom of which Japan was a part, given their incredible similarity. In fact if it weren't for the fact that the royal guard wasn't constantly guarding her or he fact that there was the scar on her face, clearly not shown when his sister Yuzu turned on the TV for the small events that happened from time to time, he would say she was the princess of Vale.

Groaning as he readjusted in his seat and turned back away from the girl Ichigo sighed and peered out the window again watching the roaring engines twist and distort the air with the heat being produced by the ignition of the fuel stores in the wings.

It was only then that the orange light of the burning light no longer disguised the flames coming from above as the wings of the outboard engines quickly gained a red hue and further distortion of the air was apparent as another set of engines was clearly seen over the top of the airship he was currently in.

"What the…?" Ichigo trailed off in a confused voice, trying to peer further outside the window of the airship, only to be restricted by the window pain as his face pressed up against it, clearly able to feel the heat from the engines above the airship as he felt his cheeks heat up instantly upon contact with the Perspex window.

The view Ichigo was granted was a bright blue jet searing through the outboard wing, cutting the engine off of the airship.

Ichigo only adopted a face of confusion for a moment before his eyes widened and realized the result of such a thing happening. They would inevitably drop from the air and crash into the green sea below, the home to some of the fiercest creatures in the four kingdoms, the stretch between Japan and the mainland of Vale having been called the 'Proteus Channel' referring to a god of an ancient culture in which Proteus was the god of rivers or oceanic bodies of water. (1)

As the name suggests 'Proteus' referring to the words first or primordial, meaning first born lead many to suspect that this stretch of ocean was where the first of the Grim were to come from, and as naturally as any creature would, having become adapted to it's environment over many millennia, only the strongest of the Grim lay within the depths of the ocean here, however rarely spotted due to their seemingly shy behavior to flying vessels. It was common for ocean-based forms of transport to go missing.

Now looking up at the searing flames roaring from the overhead engine, Ichigo wasn't so sure about that.

It was barely noticeable before but the engines of the airship he was within began to peter out due to air restriction, the main fuel pumps and electronic systems still far enough away from the second engine overhead to not yet cut out, insulation getting the better of the cutting method being used to sever the wings that held the craft in the sky as well.

Standing up rapidly, and apologizing to the girl beside him as he used her head rest and the headrest of the passenger in front of her to leap over her legs rather than squeezing between her and the seats. Landing in the aisle, Ichigo ran to the front of the airship and opened the door with enough force to nearly tear it off of its hinges.

"Oy, there's something cutting off the engi…nes…" Ichigo broke off yet again, eyes widening, stunned by the fact that there were no pilots, well, at least pilots that were alive by any stretch. Despite the fact that they appeared to be riddled with bullets, the two in front of him had their necks cut, flesh shredded out during a clear struggle if the lunches that the pilots had been delivered strewn all over the cabin was any indication. This made him feel uneasy, it wasn't his first time having seen someone die or rather someone's dead body, however the fact that they were dead was still a fact that he was getting use to. It only took a moment for him to recover and notice the further damage to the compartment.

A gust of wind blew over his face as he looked up from the dead bodies of the pilots and saw the smashed wind screens that protected the pilots from the weather that happened every so often over the seas, and ropes that dangled through them leading up past the top of the window.

Dashing past the dead pilots, shoes squelching in the blood stained carpet floor of the cabin and stuck his head out of the window and looked directly upwards where he saw two men climbing back up the rope with rifles attached to their backs by custom made slings that held a little more than just the rifles to their backs.

Looking out to the side, the deep roar of an engine of the offending aircraft came from one of the now four identifiable engines on the airship overhead.

Suddenly the airship which Ichigo was on lurched forwards causing Ichigo's unsteady stance over the dashboard of dials and switches to give way and slam the side of his jaw into it, causing him to bite down hard on his tongue and cause it to start bleeding lightly. Slightly glad for the fact that despite his entire body was flowing with power constantly, his teeth hadn't been sharpened to the point where he'd bite his own tongue off Ichigo cursed and look back out the window now noticing the taught cables that were holding onto the craft and a smoking airship engine sailing towards the ocean surface.

Finally deciding that this was in fact no point in time in which he should be watching the airship being taken apart from what appeared to be pirates Ichigo went straight to the radio receiver to find that no surprise, it had bee thoroughly broken.

Forgoing the broken communication device Ichigo rushed back to the overhead compartment noticing the stunned faces of most of the passengers of the airship. Slowing down significantly on his return ignoring the cries of the people that saw him burst out of the pilots cockpit, Ichigo's eyes narrowed on several passengers that seemed to be casually folding up their newspapers and tucking them into the pockets in the backs of the seats in front of them before pulling what looked to be small O2 masks. Placing these over their faces Ichigo doubled his speed to the overhead compartment where he had in fact smuggled the black blade of his onto the carry on luggage.

Reaching the overhead locker Ichigo undid the clasps and opened the lid as fast as he could. Reaching into the compartment Ichigo barely heard the cry below him as the girl he had been sitting next to him shrieked when she saw someone approaching.

Not having enough time Ichigo twisted out of the way, avoiding the blow that would have otherwise struck his head, and apparently obliterated his head had it come in contact when he heard the smashing noise when the assailants fist struck the overhead compartment and caused it to crumple inwards like tissue paper. The ease of this punch unnerved Ichigo as he made a mental note to avoid any consecutive strike that the man might aim for.

"Stand still, ya little bastard." The man roared through the mask he wore.

The purpose of the mask? Ichigo didn't know. What he did know was that either very soon he'd be very dead, or he wouldn't be conscious enough to make any decisions or move at all for that matter.

"Gnh!" The man grunted slightly when a sapphire aura coated foot struck out in the mans abdomen causing a light of dull red to flair up from within the moss green trench coat he wore.

Turning his head to the side the man noticed the girl that had earlier seemed like a girl way out of her depth strike out with a concentrated aura kick to him. She now, rather than the fierce glare she had directed at him a moment before the strike now wore a face of confusion and worry.

"Haha. Nice try little bitch…say," The man paused for a moment noticing Ichigo's apprehension in striking him after seeing the spark of light beneath his trench coat, "ya look awfully familiar don'tcha."

The girl narrowed her eyes at him as though the man were thinking of doing something obscene to her. Her confused expression was replaced by one of determination as she readjusted her stance in the seat she was in, preparing to defend herself if necessary.

Forgoing any further waiting for the point of the glow beneath the mans clothing Ichigo struck during the time of the man's distraction, striking him heavily in the chest with a straight kick from his solid stance on the aisle of the airship.

The man was sent back seven rows of seats from Ichigo's kick, having struck the roof of the fuselage of the airship before he could go much further. The only thing during this time that worried Ichigo was the far more intense shine that came from within the man's trench coat and seemed to shred it from the inside out.

As the man stood again he rolled his shoulders and discarded the trench coat to reveal a full bodysuit that was entirely black with grey lined metallic plates going over his core muscle groups and bones including major blood vessels except for those around the neck. The gaps between the plates let out a few red sparks as the man adjusted himself some more preparing himself to strike, only to let out a small grunt when some of the less challenging passengers began to pass out and relaxed his stance.

"You were a bit of trouble, but you were less than we expected." The man stated as he turned around leaving his shredded trench coat behind, strewn over the seat and occupant he was beside a moment ago.

"Damn it." Ichigo wheezed out, his vision beginning to twist. Shaking his head and growling slightly, Ichigo willed away the oncoming nausea and swimming vision if only temporarily and approached the man in a blur unintentionally causing the floor to buckle slightly under the sudden pressure.

Unfortuantely the problem with not moving at the speed of sound or beyond was that this noise reached the turned man before Ichigo could and he turned rapidly, the gaps between the plates on his body suit flaring up slightly at the rapid turn that was required to counter Ichigo's fast movements.

The man brought up his left arm to block Ichigo's clumsy right swing with his forearm and went to return a punch with his other free arm when Ichigo's closed fist opened up into a palm as he caught the slight twitch in the mans movements to show the preemptive strike. He caught the forearm of the enemy and tugged on his arm bringing the man past his left side, wide open with an arm over Ichigo's shoulder, and left fist up for a direct strike to the solar plexus of the man.

Ichigo's fist struck with a resounding thud and crunch against the mans armoured chest rather than do any real damage due to Ichigo's waning concentration and control over his 'Aura'. Ichigo's hand flared in pain, dull red sparks coming out from between the plates and lighting up like circuits along the sections of plate.

The man only growled at Ichigo's resistance and grabbed the extended arm of Ichigo's with the hand that was originally going to punch Ichigo with due to his other arm still stuck in the grip of the teen before him.

Pulling on the orange haired teens arm he used an impressive amount of strength considering the 'Aura' in Ichigo's fingers and ripped his arm from the teen's grip and elbowed the teen in the face, following up with a kick to the chest from a spinning heel kick through tucking his leg close to his body until the strike to avoid the chairs in the narrow aisle.

Red sparks leapt off of the man's heel as Ichigo was sent careening backwards with the unprecedented strength of the strike to his chest effectively winding him and possibly breaking a few ribs in the process. Barely worth the man's time in the end, not having had to really take the teen seriously despite his impressive strength even under the influence of the sleeping gas being poured into the cabin.

Ichigo groaned finally unable to hold onto any conscious thought any longer and passed out on the floor of the airship.

The man turned on his heel and walked straight past the trench coat he was wearing before, giving it a quick glance as he passed it before deciding how pointless it was to pick it up and carried on past it and towards the front of the airship.

As one of the few assailants currently on the airship he reached up to the earpiece he had and made his report confirming the restraining of any resistance in the moments that any lucky few remained conscious long enough to show any form of resistance.

* * *

_Vale city police station_

"So," a male voice began, resting his mug of coffee on the steel table before him, and apparently favourite cane in his left hand.

Retracting his chair from the table he sat down careful not to sit directly underneath the unnecessarily bright light in the unnecessarily darkly bordered room.

"you're Ruby Rose."

* * *

**So, a disappointment to some, as I read their reviews stating that they hoped Ichigo would be getting to Beacon academy this chapter. Unfortunately not, Ichigo just attracts too much trouble and I really need to expand on what was happening at the end of last chapter in my opinion. It expands somewhat on his powers and abilities this way while trying to show that he is not totally overpowered, something I'm not overly fond of reading in other fics. ****  
**

**By now I'm pretty sure you've also figured out that this little arc that I'm going to throw in for all intents and purposes coincides with the time Ruby was in the dust store reading a magazine when Roman Torchwick decides to steal everything. Figured it could kinda slot into here somehow. I'm going to give a week between Ruby's "Interrogation" and the time all the students board the Airship for Beacon. **

**Expect maybe three to four chapters, possibly more in this arc (six or seven being the limit, can't go off track forever considering I have other plans for this), considering that it is a week's timespan I'm doing this over.**

**(1) Proteus is supposedly Poseidon's first born son and was granted limited control over the ocean and rivers. Also considered to be origin of some if not all sea monsters...I think**


	4. Chapter 4

**POSTED: 7/10/14**

**Well, here's the next chapter. Thought I could probably bust another one out before the start of school tomorrow. Sucks to be the guys who went back today. Anyway, don't expect any frequent updates as I will be spending most of my time studying now and doing school work. I will try though to get an update out at least once every two maybe three weeks and on any particular good week, one.**

**I combed through this for a bit picking up any errors I could find, both as I wrote it and after I finished, but if notices anything in particular could you notify me via PM and I'll try fix it up asap, thanks.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: A hero's first steps**

* * *

"Why am I stuck with this stupid job?" a young man cried out as he held a scanning device over the unconscious people that were once making their way to the mainland of Vale. "It's not like we're gonna find any of those stupid things anyway. What's the likelihood of finding one after all? Like one in a million." The man tilted his head backwards and cried out with an annoyed groan while shaking the device in his hand angrily.

The man's frustration was completely understandable. The particular sensor he held within his hand was no special device. One could merely pick it up at a corner store after all for less than what it cost a loaf of bread. It was a thermometer of sorts designed to pick up temperatures of a persons body no more than six feet away. The thing he was looking for was the crux of the situation, as a person with an abnormally high fever could cause this sensor to go off at the set level.

Measuring somewhere in between thirty-seven point five and forty-three degrees Celsius, this device was set to measure for consistently high temperatures in people that appeared to have no adverse effects happening with their body at that present time. This of course meant that should he come across someone who was not in fact a target but still had an abnormally high fever he had to watch over them until he was absolutely sure that they were not sick in anyway. By that point of course the alarms would be ringing and a complete evacuation of those weaker than a set level of strength would be under way.

"Nnngh." A groan came from one of the people by the man's feet.

"Grr," the man growled while forming a veritable scowl on his face, "Go." The man began kicking the person in the gut, "Back." THUMP "To." THUMP "SLEEP!" the man let out a mighty roar and with a final kick to the face, shattered the person's nose and snapped their neck in a resounding crack that echoed throughout the cargo hold of the pirate Airship.

Everything went silent and for a moment, nothing but the air making it's way in and out of his lungs could be heard. His heart was hammering so much he thought it would burst out of his chest. His joints creaked with anticipation as to whether or not he had been caught killing the merchandise. A drop of sweat rolled down his forehead, past his nose, over his lips, and dripped off of his chin. All within this moment, between the time of the drop disconnecting from his chin and colliding with the floor, one word could be heard. "Oops."

* * *

_MEANWHILE_

Ruby Rose, an intelligent girl, although she didn't show it much, was now sitting at a steel table in a confined room, with her precious scythe, 'Crescent Rose' confiscated for the time being. She should have known better than to cause property damage, even if it was to try and catch a criminal.

Oh, but she could put that all behind her now, she, Ruby Rose, did get to meet a huntress after all. It was so cool!

A hand slammed down on the steel table before Ruby to try and get her attention. It could be said that it was rather effective as the Ruby that was lost to her imagination suddenly jolted in her seat to the noise and sudden intrusion into her mind.

Trailing the hand up to its owner Ruby could say that it belonged to a very irate owner whom had caught her during the night trying to catch a well-known criminal, Roman Torchwick. Said owner was in fact a huntress whom didn't approve of young ladies 'gallivanting' about at night like vigilantes, a statement Ruby had sorely detested to and claimed that that wasn't what she was aiming for and that she just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

It was by that point in time that the woman's glare intensified tenfold and responded with 'people are rarely in the right place at the right time' rejecting Ruby's defensive statement due to her overenthusiastic behaviour. By this point Ruby was rather disappointed about her bright personality due to the fact that it was taken entirely the wrong way and had ended up landing her in a load of trouble.

"…are you even listening to me?" The blond huntress asked Ruby, her green eyes penetrating Ruby's skull through and through making her feel even more guilty by the second.

Ruby was unsure how to answer this question without giving away that she was in fact not listening to a single word for the past fifteen minutes while the blonde huntress constantly readjusted her glasses and read out a list of property damages from her tablet and berated Ruby all about her behavior. So Ruby did the logical thing, well, logical to Ruby anyway.

"No." Ruby stated bluntly causing the woman opposite her to heave a long drawn out sigh, "However, I do know what I did wrong, and I can't help but think that asking for an autograph wasn't that bad and that I still really want it…Please." Ruby slipped a piece of paper and a pen out of seemingly nowhere holding it out for the woman before her to sign expectantly.

The blonde woman only lashed out with the riding crop in her hand with a small growl, striking the pen and paper out of Ruby's hands, striking the table with a loud bang and causing her to jump back in fright, the jaw length black hair tinted red hitting her in the eyes as she went eliciting a quiet 'ow'. How infuriating must this child be?! Was it natural for fifteen-year-old girls to be like this? Was she like this when she was this young?

The blonde woman shivered at the thought while mentally apologising to any people she may have irritated unintentionally when she was a young girl.

"Now, now Glynda, just hold on for a moment and you'll be able to leave to go on your mission." A man with grey hair and an odd pair of glasses with green lenses walked in with a coffee mug in one hand, a plate of cookies in the other and a cane held underneath his arm pressed firmly against his body.

That caused Ruby's mind to spark. _"A mission, she's going on a real mission for huntresses and hunters. Oh, that's so cool!"_

Her excitement wasn't missed by the two adults in the room, one of which only sighed and looked to the side obviously having enough of the teens rather exhausting nature and attitude, her blonde curly hair that framed the right side of her face and a portion of the right flowing with the movement successfully hiding the teen from her vision, the other let out a small chuckle to accompany the smile he now held on his face.

"So…" he began seemingly contented with meeting supposedly the most interesting person of the day as he sat down and placed the plate of cookies in front of himself drawing out a wanting moan from the young girl opposite him. This only caused a small smirk to grow on the man's face, going completely unnoticed by Ruby.

"…you're Ruby Rose are you." The statement was merely a rhetorical one, yet Ruby replied.

"Yep." Ruby replied yet again in a seemingly blunt yet happy manner, drawing a smile to her face at the same time.

Leaning forwards as though to get a better look, he let out the plainest, and in Ruby's opinion, strangest statement that she had heard in a while, "You have silver eyes." He stated bringing a befuddled expression to Ruby's face as though she didn't know what to say. It wasn't exactly a complement, nor was it an insult, so Ruby merely said 'thanks', her 'weirdness meter' for the man rising slightly for a moment before it went back down realizing that he was merely trying to diffuse some of the tension that had built up during Ruby's interrogation.

"What I really want to know," the man began with a slightly more serious tone trying and succeeding to get the attention of Ruby, "is how you did this." The man said questioningly.

Glynda, taking the cue responded by swiping across the tablet screen in her hands to the security tape from one of the street cameras, bringing up a recording of Ruby wielding a giant red, black and silver scythe with extreme skill and speed. Not to mention the strength required to even lift the weapon in the first place, against the men hired by Roman to rob the dust store in the first place. It was clear the girl had been trained and at least had rudimentary skills in manipulating her aura.

Looking at the screen seemingly impressed by the movements that Ruby had gone through, the man continued with his question. "Where did you learn to do this?" His demanding vision pointing back towards Ruby's silver eyes.

"Um…hehe," Ruby seemed slightly nervous for some reason. Perhaps the two demanding sets of eyes that were pointing in her direction was the cause of her uneasiness. Clearing her throat and summoning as much courage as she could, she began talking. "I learnt at signal academy."

A hidden glint of mischief behind his eyes and the slight upturning of his lips was all that ruby got as a response before he pushed the plate of cookies forwards as encouragement for Ruby to continue, the sly man! Wasting no time the man continued straight after hearing her answer and processing the information in the blink of an eye, "Who taught you? There's only one other person I know of that can beat that level of skill."

It took a moment for Ruby to process where this conversation was going while simultaneously grabbing a cookie from the plate and stuffing it into her mouth while still in one piece. He was clearly interested in where she learnt how to wield her scythe, yet at the same time he didn't seem to be angry at her for any reason unlike the woman behind him who, till this very moment, hadn't stopped glaring at her through her glasses. If she played this out correctly she may be able to get away with this without getting in any trouble at all. Yes!

_"Alright!"_ Ruby mentally fist pumped the air, _"Let's do this!"_

* * *

Glynda was confused as to why her boss wanted to so badly meet this girl. Here she was, a seemingly oblivious girl who wanted her autograph…

The thought made a light blush come to Glynda's face. Ok so maybe a little girl wanting her autograph wasn't so bad after all, _"No! You're a huntress and should take your job seriously."_ Glynda shook her head and went back to glaring at the girl while not entirely paying attention to the matter at hand._ "This girl, Ruby, was in clear violation of the law. She's just lucky that he took notice of her and decided to take matters into his own hands."_

If it were up to her Ruby would have been sent home with a note to her parents or current guardian with a pat on the back and a slap on the wrist. She would have delivered that sad statement to Ruby herself if he hadn't turned up at the moment she was about to say it. It was painful enough that she had been notified that her nieces Airship had gone missing over the ocean…damnit!

She had been trying to take her anger out on someone else, again! Just before a mission to. For reasons she didn't know, her niece, a rather talented huntress in the works if she did say so herself had gone missing on an Airship that left Japan no less than twelve hours ago. And here she was blaming her incompetence on a fifteen-year-old girl for not being able to keep her niece safe.

Replacing the anger she knew she clearly had with newfound determination to find her niece unharmed, and possibly stop an all out war with whomever had possibly hijacked the Airship, Glynda would have apologised to Ruby for her slightly out of place behaviour, if it were not for the fact that she knew that she still would have talked to Ruby in about the same fashion as she did then.

* * *

"Well, my uncle Qrow taught me." Ruby responded before reaching out for the rest of the cookies, causing them to disappear in mere moments of them being placed there. "'e shed…" Ruby paused, unaware that the congested mass of cookies in her mouth would cause her to become illiterate for seemingly no reason at all. Was this why she was always told to never talk while eating? Wow, one of the many wonders of the world, 'why couldn't one speak properly while eating?'

Instead of continuing off onto her tangent mid-conversation, Ruby paused, swallowed and promptly apologised like she'd been taught. Should she have done what she taught herself she may not have apologised, her morals being slightly off of what was considered the norm.

"He said it was a good thing to help people and I really want to be a huntress. I was going to apply for Beacon in two years you see to fight the grim after I finished at Signal academy." Ruby began her long winding story that clearly only one of the adults in the room was paying any attention to at all.

"You want to slay monsters?" The man before Ruby clarified still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the young girl before him had clearly, even though she hadn't said it yet, had her entire life and career pretty much sorted out and coming down to slaying monsters.

"Yeah," Ruby responded sheepishly scratching the back of her head in the process before dropping her hand back to her side and continuing if it was even possible, which seemed to be the case, with even more vigour than before, "and my sister is going to be a huntress because she also wants to help people so I thought, 'well, yeaaah'" Ruby started waving her hands about in a way that displayed being a huntress to be a more exciting and cool thing than the man could possibly think it to be. "'I can see how that's going to work', so it's a total win, win situation. I get to help people and be a huntress at the same time because it's so cool!"

The man paused, hiding his surprise at the teen's enthusiasm towards being a huntress quite well. In fact, his face merely looked more interested than surprised at the revelation from the teen before him. If it weren't for the fact that he had seen her fight on the recording earlier he would have clearly told the girl that she had a few screws loose somewhere in that head of hers, or 'lost her marbles'. Deciding to finally reveal to the teen whom he was, if he even needed to, since statistically speaking the girl already more than likely knew who he was, he took a quick sip from his coffee mug before resting it back on the table. The girl's cookies were long gone before he'd even reached half way.

"Do you know who I am?" He eyed the girl critically awaiting her response noting that she'd calmed down from the sudden hype moments earlier. Resting his elbows on the table and clasping his hands together while hiding the lower half of his face behind them only seemed to make the stare seem even more intense than it really was.

"Of course," Ruby nodded slowly, finally establishing the right level of emotion for a conversation such as this, while also realising that she may not be as scott free as she thought a few minutes ago. "You're Professor Ozpin, the principal of Beacon."

At that moment of truth, Ozpin's eyes seemed to relax as he raised his head away from his hands at the girl that clearly could not always contain her excitement. "I see…" Ozpin trailed off. _"this girl must have trained most of her life to reach the level she is currently at. To see her do so with a smile on her face makes the option all that more enticing. Such skill shouldn't be wasted when it is right before me."_

Smirking in a way that would have made Glynda roll her eyes should she have seen it and leave the moment a word came out of his mouth, he made his decision. "Ruby," he stated clearly in a way that showed whatever happened next would decide her fate.

Would she be sent home with a bill for uncle Qrow? Or would she go to gaol? Ruby didn't know what would happen and sat on the edge of her seat in anticipation, some sweat trickling down her forehead as she licked her lips ready to bolt out the door the moment anything related to money came out of the man's mouth.

"How would you," Ozpin began.

_"Here it comes, here it comes. Cross your fingers Ruby, cross them so hard they might snap! You can not afford to go to the loony bin!"_ Ruby thought noting all the while that her heart rate had steadily begun to increase.

"like to go to Beacon starting this coming new year?" Ozpin finished, noting with a satisfied smirk the annoyed groan that came from Glynda behind him. Oh how he liked doing this to people. One thing that many did not expect was his own form of self-entertainment that anyone rarely picked up on.

Ruby stopped, her thoughts coming to a screeching halt like a car crash, as to what her punishment would be. And so like a car crash her thoughts came out in a mumbled jumbled sentence that could only be summed up to a long drawn out, "Whaaaaat?" in a clearly confused voice, her face having stretched into what could be considered the most confused expression of all time.

Making a quick U-turn, her mind snapping back to reality as though an elastic band, Ruby cried out in a long string of 'yes' and 'thankyou' to the chance she had been given, her loud and boisterous voice echoing throughout the room focusing on Ozpin who unfortunately happened to be at the very centre of the room and so, loudest place he could possibly be, putting him that much closer to needing hearing aids than he really wanted to.

In this light, Glynda could only smile as Ozpin winced at the sudden loudness of the room, oh the pleasure of getting someone back even if it is indirect was pleasing. She knew, just knew that Ozpin was already regretting_ "…no, maybe not."_ Glynda thought, a frown returning to it's rightful place on her face as she saw the small smile on Ozpin's face when he went to catch a glimpse of her reaction out of the corner of his eye. He was clearly happy for such enthusiasm even through the grimace he displayed.

"Calm down Ruby," Ozpin said in a slightly harsh voice reprimanding Ruby for her loud behavior in such a small space, "calm down."

Once again scratching her head in a sheepish manner, Ruby let out a quiet "Sorry." Before chuckling a little bit and settling down entirely, well almost entirely. The buzz of excitement was still clear in her eyes and face as a grin planted itself firmly on her face threatening to split her head in two should it get any bigger.

"Now, on your way out just ask the man for your weapon back and I'm sure he'll give it to you." Ozpin calmly said causing Ruby to start rising out of her seat. She would have left the room if it weren't for Ozpin's hand sticking out stopping her in her tracks. "And if you don't mind, I'd like you to join Glynda,"

The moment Ozpin was even about to finish that sentence Glynda slammed her riding crop onto the table shattering Ozpin's coffee much in the process and sending tiny shards everywhere. Thankfully Ozpin had long finished his coffee through his small sips, so no coffee would get on his clothing and burn him. "No." Glynda narrowed her eyes darkly at Ozpin all attention now away from the teen who to their credit had yet to piss in her seat at the malevolent aura that began to manifest around Glynda, irises turning a vibrant shade of purple. Rather Ruby opted to pale considerably to the point one would consider her anemic.

Ozpin returned the intense stare with one of his own yet much calmer ones. "You know as well as myself that if it were any other mission I would allow you to go and single handedly take care of the pirates." Ozpin stated firmly, trying to reason with Glynda. It seemed to be working, if only slightly considering the slight slackening of her gritted teeth. "She will help keep you on track."

Glynda's 'Aura' retracted itself finally as she saw the reasoning behind Ozpin's statement. Her frown remained however. "Fine," Glynda spoke in a much calmer voice than the few seconds earlier, "but I do not think that a hyperactive teenage girl is the best of choices. I think it would be best either you or another accomplished hunter or huntress come with me."

"Unfortunately she is all we have on such short notice so you'll have to make do and make sure she doesn't get herself killed in the process." Ozpin stated clearly knowing that Glynda was not satisfied with the answer she was given. Turning to Ruby, who still had a face that was a bit discoloured but much better than before he went to confirm her participation. "Ruby, do you wish to join Miss Goodwitch on her mission to save some missing persons?"

"Umm…" Ruby seemed to contemplate the question for several minutes before she answered, her expression twisting and turning all the while from concern to excitement, each one clearly stating their case of reasoning. Should she go, she might be subjected to Glynda's wrath, which after just one meeting she decided she'd rather not see it again. On the other hand, it would be her first try at being a true huntress. After much contemplation Ruby finally nodded, "I'll go,"

Ozpin smiled at the decision and looked back to Glynda only to be on the receiving end of her glare. Thankfully he had reason to turn back to look at Ruby before he shit his own pants in front of the huntress as Ruby coughed to get their attention.

'Ahem' "only…" Ruby thought for a moment solidifying her terms before nodding to herself, "if she doesn't go all 'Rawrrrr'," Ruby jumped up onto her seat holding her hands in the air above her head in a menacing claw like manner while showing her teeth despite the fact that she neither had a menacing 'Aura' or sharp teeth to emphasize the point, "again." Ruby finished.

"I think that's reasonable." Ozpin answered for Glynda who by now had turned tail and was stalking out of the room to await the hyperactive teen outside of the building unable to hear the answer Ozpin made for her.

_"No promises."_

* * *

_BACK ON THE AIRSHIP_

Grabbing onto his hair in fistfuls, the man began to internally panic, _"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! What am I gonna do?"_ He began, his eyes darting to the only two entrances to the cargo hold. _"Ok, calm down. Nobody heard. You just have to get rid of the body before anyone finds out and dobs you in."_

Looking back down at the body of a young boy on the ground, the man cringed, not in sympathy but because it was going to be a pain to clean up the pool of blood that had begun collecting around the head of the victim.

"Ew, get your blood away from me!" The man somewhat shrieked at the dead boy. "You're gonna get blood on my favourite shoes you little shit!"

The man went to kick the boy again in the face but faltered when he was about to strike the same place where the face had caved in and had blood pouring out. The little falter caused the man to raise his foot just high enough to miss the crater in the face and rather impact a somewhat still in one piece cheekbone. This however did not come without its consequences as the man shifted the only foot that was still in contact with the floor and into the small pool of blood. The remaining momentum then caused him to slip and fall onto his back, smacking his head against the hard, steel plated floor.

"Nhhgg." The man groaned in pain while rolling around and trying not to let any loud noises escape the confines of his throat. Instead he opted to string together a rather long list of choice curse words, often referring to someone whom would think was his relative.

Standing back up after a few minutes and rubbing the back of his rather painful head, he only thanked whatever higher being that was out there that no one had walked in during the process of him rolling around whining like a child.

Growling at the dead body and finally coming to the sane conclusion that any other person would, 'dead people are mean people'. Looking down at his feet, the man sighed in relief when he noticed that no blood had gotten onto the fabric of the shoes. What got him a little more was the fact that he would have to change shirts to stop anyone noting the rather large bloodstain now on his back.

Rolling his eyes he could only think of one thing to say as he rolled his eyes and spoke in a rather annoyed tone, "Oh, brilliant!"

Bending over and picking up…no, no, that doesn't seem quite right. Why would he pick up the body and risk getting more blood onto himself? No idea. Shaking his head he grabbed the back of the collar of the kids shirt and began dragging him to the maintenance hatch located over near the main cargo bay doors, the very same hatch that all the bodies were pulled up through in the first place. Why hadn't he done this in the first place? _"Because you're an idiot you dumbass."_ He said to himself. _"Just freak out everytime you accidentally kill the merchandise."_ The man continued, only to start prancing about, flinging the body of the boy around him flicking blood everywhere as he continued to berate himself. _"No Issei. You're not allowed to kill the merchandise. Boo hoo. I'm gonna cry."_

Having approached the hatch he threw the body to the ground beside it receiving another audible crunch as it landed on one of the two and a half centimetre diameter bolts that ran up through the floor about twelve point seven centimetres and pierced the boy's skull. "It's not like the fatty ever achieved anything worthwhile anyway besides being a pain in the ass when we tried to pull him through the hatch."

True enough there were gashes on the rather large child's sides from being forcefully pushed through a hole too small for one of his size to fit.

* * *

FLASH BACK

The weight of a person never really mattered to Issei, he could generally lift them no problem with his semblance skill and 'Aura'. But fitting a square peg into a round hole just wasn't his thing.

"Just. Go. In. Fatty." Issei grunted as he tried to shove an even rounder object into a round hole.

Ok, so maybe this wasn't the classic case of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. But you have to give him credit. This thing was planet size! It was hard enough trying not to damage any merchandise when pulling them up with the winch through the hole. Usually the people fit no problem because the state of the world required that to survive one had to be fit and healthy. The fact that this kid was overweight either meant that his parents had given up, he was diabetic, or so help him god he was loaded with cash.

The problem though that with fitting the fatty through the round hole he had to put a ladder up against the hatch between there and the hijacked Airship. An experience that would have normally been only terrifying to any normal person had the Airship not been moving at that exact moment. The movement at high speeds would give any sane person a heart attack.

Frowning at the fact that only the legs now dangled through the hatch in the bottom of the Airship, Issei grabbed onto the greives that ran along the rim of the hatch, and in an incredible feat of gymnastics and strength Issei flipped himself upside down planting his feet firmly on the now dubbed 'fat ass's' arse. Along with this feat though came a serious downside, he'd probably lost the last ladder they had as he kicked it away so he could perform his feat.

Suddenly the body gave way with a mighty shove from Issei pulling himself up through the hatch while upside down and kicking the overweight child through the hatch while the skin of his torso was scratched and torn away by small imperfections in the metal hull of the Airship.

FLASH BACK END

* * *

And now here he was again, about to push the 'fat ass' through the hatch and into the ocean below where all the nasty things in the world would devour him ruthlessly and leave nothing behind.

"All right, here we go." Issei spoke yet again to himself, his style of speech once more altering itself to a calmer state than what many would think is possible if they knew him.

Unlocking the hatch Issei flipped it open casually allowing the sudden rush of air flow to freshen the warm air inside the cargo hold, allowing his head to tilt backwards as he took in a deep breath of this fresh air. Having taken his fresh breath of the cool oceanic air he turned his head back to the body beside the hatch where the head remained impaled on the bolt sticking through the floor.

Glaring at the body he grabbed the front of the collar on the corpse and lifted it up, aiming the dangling feet over the hole before dropping it. Now normally when he dropped anything from this height regardless of size it'd go through the hatch, not this one though. Raising his right foot he smashed down on the head of the corpse that had seemingly gotten itself stuck in a hole too small for it to fit.

FOOMP

The sudden rush of air was reminiscent of clapping a hand over a cardboard tube and hearing the sound of the result afterwards. It sounded, to him at least, like there was one less nuisance in the cargo bay for him to take care of. In complete awe at his success Issei adopted a joyful grin as he slammed the hatch shut, the fat boy having long since collided with the ocean only twenty or so odd metres below due to the fact that the airship was in fact painted a navy blue to try and blend in with the dark ocean hiding from anyone who didn't pay enough attention.

Locking the hatch back up Issei could only pick up the thermometer device again and start dragging it along the queue of one hundred people or so tightly crammed together to save space. He could only open and close his mouth in awe and horror as the monitor went off for no particular reason, until he saw it, the person who had managed to get the device to alarm him.

Dropping the device, gaping in horror he quickly dragged the body out of the line of people before sprinting off to one of the exits of the cargo bay to alert the captain. He didn't know what to do, the captain would know. Surely they couldn't be selling that thing on the market, it'd cause too much of a ruckus. The knowledge of having found one was incomprehensible. They were far and few between yet one had rocked up right on their doorstep. Monster!

"Captain!" Issei's voice broke out onto the main deck, where all the other people who were currently monitoring the Airships condition and piloting it to their base. This sudden outcry had the unintended effect of drawing the attention of nearly everyone on deck to Issei.

Eyes darting about, his heart thumping, Issei could only look towards his captain who seemed inattentive at the moment. Despite this Issei had the urge to tell his captain of the news of what he had discovered amongst the people in the cargo bay.

"It…there's…I found one!" he almost yelled finally pulling a sentence of coherent words together, drawing confused stares from around the deck as they each wondered what he was talking about. It was only when their captain's face morphed into one of pure disgust and hatred did they realise the implication of finding one of whatever Issei had found amongst the people they had kidnapped. They could only hope the poor soul would find peace in the afterlife.

"I…um…also believe we may have someone rather important among the rest." Issei said in a much firmer tone that was doing much better at hiding his concern for what the captain had told him about 'them'.

"And you left it there?" the captain replied in a deadly quiet voice. Noting the absence of a reply he turned his head to face Issei, eyes narrowing as he looked at the young man before him. If there was one mistake this boy made in his life it was now. Standing up and rising to his full height the captain walked over to Issei before giving one command to him, "Show me."

* * *

Ruby rocked back and forth on her heels, her excitement and adrenaline reaching a new high that wouldn't allow her to stand still as she waited by the docks for Glynda to show up. She was like an overpowered little ball of energy that wouldn't stop if you gave her the right incentive, and right now, that incentive was right before her.

Suddenly the roar of engines overhead caused Ruby to turn her head to face the military style Aircraft that had two engines outboard on the wings and a hull that seemed to be designed to withstand a great amount of force. It appeared that Glynda had managed to procure a slightly below military grade Airship that was built for speed and surveillance, a conclusion that Ruby came to after noticing the special black paint that was coated over the entire body of the craft.

Overall it looked incredibly similar to the craft that Roman had gotten away on when Ruby first met him only slightly slimmer and larger doors on the side. The only major difference between the two craft was that this one was piloted by Glynda Goodwitch, a huntress and good person in Ruby's book so far if not for the totally scary moment she had during her interrogation.

Lowering just outside the docks and over the water Glynda became visible just through the two-seated cockpit window on the right side of the aircraft, looking straight at Ruby from her position near the joystick to control the craft. Lifting a microphone off of the panel Glynda's voice came through the loudspeakers that were just inside the side door of the fuselage.

"I'm not landing so just jump in." Glynda said over the loudspeakers while lowering the aircraft low enough so that the engine tips were just above the water, spraying the substance everywhere under the high pressure of the streams of hot air that were being blasted against the surface of the water.

Ruby just raised one of her eyebrows slightly, the usual precautionary act of landing the craft forgone by the only person that rejected to her coming on the mission that had likely impending danger and death if they weren't careful enough. Shrugging her shoulders in the end Ruby back up a bit before she sprinted and jumped off the edge of the peer, easily clearing the distance between it and the door of the aircraft.

Once she landed aboard Glynda turned her head around to make sure Ruby had safely landed aboard before closing the door with the control panel just to her right and allowed the craft to rise to a fairly high altitude before angling the engines into a horizontal position and taking off towards the missing Airships last known location.

All while this happened Ruby made her way to the front of the now recognisable 'M-83 Hawk Type-c heavy payload transport vessel', thanks to the inscription on the wall on the front right of the main section of the craft where Ruby assumed things like cargo could go, or in the case of a small rescue mission, people. Ruby doubted however that just over a hundred people that were on the original missing Airship could even fit in here.

Either they were only meant to find the survivors or only a small number of people were expected to have survived the crash or hijacking of the Airship. Ruby could only hope it was the former.

Sitting down adjacent to Glynda Ruby was startled when Glybnda began speaking in a sharp and professional manner. "You are to listen to everything I say and obey it. Understood." Glynda didn't even bother to turn and face Ruby as she nodded her head.

"Yes ma'am."

"Good."

* * *

**There you go, Ruby is on the way along with Glynda Goodwitch. Ozpin is strangely lenient to try and keep Glynda's head in the game and something is aboard the pirate ship. Not to mention the dead body floating in the ocean now...meh, can't keep everyone a happy sane guy or anyone in particular, alive.**


End file.
